Sidley is representing publicly traded MetLife in its pending acquisition of Versant Health from an investor group led by Centerbridge Partners and including FFL Partners for a purchase price of approximately US$1.7 billion.
The scale and complexity of this transaction required the deployment by Sidley of a multidisciplinary team across insurance, corporate, tax, employment, labor, antitrust, privacy, and other areas. The acquisition is one of a number of recent high-profile deals guided by the firm in the managed care and group benefits space.
This market-shaping transaction received extensive press coverage, and is expected to make MetLife a top three player in U.S.-managed vision care, a critical segment of the group benefits sector.
Jon Kelly and Kirk Lipsey (Insurance) are leading the Sidley team, drawn primarily from the firm’s New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. offices. The team also includes Vince Onorato, Jon Jeanlouis, Tiffany Kong, and Hannah Yi (Insurance); Stephanie Dobecki (Insurance Regulatory); David Zhao (M&A); Laura Barzilai, Rachel Kleinberg, and Nathan Enfield (Tax); Ben Rosemergy (Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation); Eric Hoffman (Labor and Employment); Karen Kazmerzak and Miriam Carroll (Antitrust/Competition); and Colleen Brown (Privacy and Cybersecurity).
